派克钢笔

choi

Cameron Mcwhirter and Laurie Burkitt, In China, Pen Is Mightier When It's Pricier; Parker writing instruments find a new prestige market for a category that's been fading in the West. Wall Street Journal, Nov 2, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 08591194801860.html
, or
http://infoseekchina.wordpress.c ... r-when-its-pricier/

Quote:

"Sales of Parker have surged 30% to 50% within the past three years in many of the nearly 500 department stores in China, where Parker sells its Chinese-inspired collection at special kiosks

"

Note:
(a) Parker Pen Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Pen_Company
(founded in 1888 by George Safford Parker in Wisconsin; current headquarters  Newhaven, East Sussex, England; currently owned by Newell Rubbermaid)

"Sales slumped in North America * * * Parker dispatched its design team to the country [China] in 2009. The company also priced the pens to make them aspirational—unlike in North America, where it had cut prices as sales lagged. 'They went for volume,' Ms [Penny] McIntyre[, head of the office products division of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid Co] said of previous Parker management teams in the US.

Note:
(i) Newell Rubbermaid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newell_Rubbermaid
(one product is Rubbermaid food storage; public. stock listed in NYSE; headquarters is located immediately north of Atlanta)
(ii) From Gillette, Newell Rubbermaid bought in 2000, among other assets, Parker and
Waterman pens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterman_pens
(Established in 1884 in New York City by Lewis Edson Waterman; current headquarters Paris)
(b) Best Western International Inc   贝斯特 韦斯特国际集团
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Western
(the third largest hotel chain, with over 4,195 hotels in nearly 80 countries; operates as a NONPROFIT membership association, with each franchisee acting and voting as a member of the association; the hotel chain [was] founded by M.K. Guertin in 1946; The name "Best Western" was a result of most of their properties originally being in the United States west of the Mississippi River)
(c) Buick  别克
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick
(currently the oldest American still-active automotive make, and among the oldest automobile brands in the world.; originated as the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company in 1899 by Scottish-born David Dunbar Buick in Detroit)

(i) The Scotish surnames:
(A) Buick is a variant spelling of Bewick, the latter from Old English beo ‘bee’ + wic ‘outlying farm;’
(B) Dunbar is the name of a place near Edinburgh: Gaelic dùn ‘fort’ + barr ‘top’, ‘summit;’
(C) Barr
(ii) vim (n; Latin, accusative of vis strength; First Known Use: 1843):
"robust energy and enthusiasm <some food and a little rest should give me back some of my vim>
www.m-w.com

(d) Montblanc (company)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montblanc_(company)
(Three Germans founded a compnay in Hamburg in 1908; A trademark identified with Montblanc is the white stylised six-pointed star with rounded edges, representative of the Mont Blanc snowcap from above, the symbol being adopted in 1913; Parent  Richemont)

(i) Mont Blanc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc
(Mont Blanc (French) or Monte Bianco (Italian), meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps and the European Union; whose summit (4810 meters) is on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy and the Arve Valley in France)
(ii) Richemont
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richemont
(Compagnie Financière Richemont SA is a Swiss luxury goods holding company founded in 1988 by the South African businessman Johann Rupert; is the third-largest luxury goods company in the world by turnover, behind LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton SA and PPR SA)

Two PPR brands are Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.